Diggin’ With The Clawhammer…

We all have our bright ideas and occasionally I get one that seems to make perfect sense and then when it no longer is efficient to abandon that idea, I realize that maybe it was really a very stupid idea. Over the years these ideas have fallen into categories. A recurring category involves digging. My basement is/was a disaster area with my kiln, shelves, boxes, peanuts, bubble wrap, raw materials, and about a half ton of clay. Of course there’s remnants all over the basement of other activities pursued over the years. This includes woodworking with all the assorted tools (planer, sanders, clamps, router, saws, drills, a plethora of hand tools and quite a pile of assorted hardwoods) and sculpture that includes bronze ingot, aluminum, welding supplies, micro-crystalline wax, wax working tools, metal chasing tools, etc. not to mention piles of driftwood and other found objects like disassembled old fashion typewriters and 2 disassembled pianos. So most of the accumulation (including the 2 pianos, hardwood, fulfillment supplies and on and on) was crammed up in the crawlspace. Fortunately, I don’t remember the days of awful capering around the crawlspace hauling heavy 20 foot lumber. So anyway, I decided it was finally prudent to admit to myself that, at 55, I will no longer be pursuing any of these old pursuits and waterproof and insulate the crawlspace, give away or throw away as much of the non-clay stuff as possible and make the basement a slightly more useful space. While insulating, my bright digging idea came to me and I decided that if I dug a walkway into the crawlspace after dragging all the detritus out that I could simply walk into the crawlspace and put my dry raw materials on the un-dug portion next to my walkway. This would make the raw materials impervious to moisture (if my basement still leaks) and free up actual floorspace. So there you have it… digging. It seemed like a good idea but unfortunately, the dirt in the crawlspace is like hardpan and a simple shovel will not work. As you can see from the next couple photos it looks like I had help from a sabertooth beaver when in fact I had to use my trusty estwing clawhammer (not my Framus clawhammer banjo) to dig out the walkway a couple inches at a time and carry the dirt 5 gallon bucket at a time out of the basement and into a wheelbarrow to deposit the dirt at the far end of the backyard…

And here’s a shot of it with raw material stacked on the sides…

Now if you’re thinking, hey what a great idea… ixnay on that. In the 90+ degree heat for days digging with the clawhammer, I felt like (a miner searching for a heart of gold) a creature whose only purpose was to take water into my body and sweat it out. But it’s done and it’s finally seeming like a bit of progress. In other news, the show I’m in out in Medicine Hat at Medalta is online here. Check it out if you get a hankerin’. Here’s the pieces I have in it…

Sometimes I hear people talking (that means I’m eavesdropping) and decrying the wasted youth of the generations of kids that follow their generations and saying there’s no hope etc. and that they’re not equipped to handle the crises of our contemporary world and of course this is all debatable for sure but sometimes I run into evidence that our world is in good hands after all. This is just such evidence and begs the question on most everyone’s mind… What does the fox say?

And for some reason, stupid wordpress will no long insert the video into the post but click it, you won’t be disappointed. Last but certainly not least here’s the bug bugging with her soldier costume complete with that damned British heraldic lion…

Congrats on the show and completing your work of digging like a badger! I raise a beer to your recent accomplishments.
And that video just made my night, possibly my whole week. I think I lost a bit of my wife’s respect as I laughed uncontrollably at that slice of greatness, but it was worth it.